Page 60 - bne_Magazine_May_2018_print

60 I Eurasia bne May 2018
The parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan brought a festive time and also a predictable leap forward in the fortunes of the president's son Serdar.
Turkmen president appoints son as deputy foreign minister
place of the Turkmen president was the Turkmen parliament’s chairwoman Akja Nurberdyeva, Nazarbayev’s decision
to meet with Berdymuhamedov’s son instead of Nurberdyeva appeared to underline the scenario of Serdar being groomed to succeed his father, common- ly referred to as Arkadag, or “protector”, and officially described as overseeing
an era of “might and happiness”. Little is publicly known about Serdar, but
it is established that he trained as an agricultural engineer and later studied diplomacy in Russia and Switzerland.
In January, the Washington-based Freedom House NGO assessed Turkmenistan as among the 12 “worst of the worst countries” for political freedom and civil liberties. None of the country’s previous elections have been deemed free or fair by Western monitors and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who has run the former Soviet Republic since 2007 while tolerating no dissent, won his third presidential term in February last year with 97% of the vote.
Most of the candidates in the election represented one of the three registered political parties. These are the Demo- cratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT, for- merly the Communist Party), the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, founded in 2012, and the Agrarian Party, founded in 2014, which took part in an election for the first time. A small
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s son Serdar has been appointed deputy foreign minister following the whopping 91.4% of the cast vote that he officially won to retain his seat in Turkmenistan’s 'rubber stamp' parliament, Turkmen state-run media reported on March 31.
Serdar Berdymukhamedov, 36, was appointed "by decree of the head of state", the announcement said. The development confirms the outlook of some Turkmenistan watchers who saw the parliamentary elections as a way to elevate Serdar’s status. Turkmen citizens voted for a new parliament on March 26 in an election dominated by three par- ties and some independents. However, all of the parliamentary candidates sup- ported President Berdymukhamedov, thus presenting no real opposition.
Rumours about Serdar’s potential future as Turkmenistan's next president have long abounded among political analysts.
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Serdar has headed a parliamentary committee on legal affairs since March 2017. His recent meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at a rare summit of Central Asian leaders –
“Freedom House NGO assessed Turkmenistan as among the 12 “worst of the worst countries” for political freedom and civil liberties”
his father was away on visits to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attempting to raise investment for Turkmenistan, currently in the midst of an economic crisis – provided more evi- dence that this eventuality would occur.
Prior to meeting with Serdar, Naz- arbayev met with the leaders of each Central Asian country who attended the event. Considering that the official representative assigned to the event in
number of candidates were put forward by public initiative groups.
The parliamentary election took place with no sign that the country of six mil- lion’s worsening budget and economic predicament are improving. The budget woes have continuously mounted within recent months with alarm bells sound- ing over scarce hard currency.
The Turkmen government has adopted